Wednesday, February 18, 2015

I read The Paying Guest by Sarah Waters for one of my book groups.We met to discuss it yesterday

and agreed
that perhaps the English just have different tastes in books, as it is a best
seller over in England.But then another
member pointed out that it is also a best seller here, so that shot down that
theory.While we ended up having quite a
good discussion about that book, it wasn’t wildly received by any of us.

The story takes place in 1922
outside of London.Frances Wray lived in
a big, old house with her mother.Her
father and two brothers had died, and they were left there alone to try to
manage the home and the expenses.After
deliberation Frances and her mother decided to rent out some rooms to help with
their debts, something they would never have dreamed of doing before.Frances and her mother rented out part of their
upstairs to Lenny and Lillie Barber, a working class couple, who came from a very
different lifestyle than Frances and her mother.

The first half of the book was somewhat
interesting, as the four people living together began to know each other and
develop relationships among themselves.Frances slowly fell in love with Lillie and the first half of the book
is spent developing that relationship.

The second half of the book became a
mystery who-done-it.But it lost my
interest at that point.I found it slow-going.And I never cared about any of the
characters.I didn’t find any of them
especially likable.There were a few
twists at the end that added a bit of interest but all-in-all, I just wouldn’t
recommend this book to anyone.

I received Oprah Winfrey’s new book,
What I Know For Sure, for
Christmas.I had picked it up at

the
library earlier, read a few pages, and took it back.I didn’t want to keep reading it because I
was taken with all of it immediately and wanted my own copy! As trite as it
sounds, I found this book to be one of the most inspirational books I have ever
read.While I am not a huge Oprah fan, I
do respect all that she has done, and find her spirituality to be quite on
target with my own beliefs.I found
myself wanting to mark every page for something written on it, and finally
realized that I just couldn’t do that. I
had to accept that I found the whole book inspirational.

The book is a compilation of her
monthly columns in the Oprah magazine.So
each essay is quite short, but distinct.It is divided into sections: Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude,
Possibility, Awe, Clarity and Power.

"You have the choice this very moment-the only moment you have for certain. I hope you aren't so wrapped up in nonessential stuff that you forget to really enjoy yourself-because this moment is about to be over. I hope you'll look back and remember today as the day you decided to make every one count, to relish each hour as if there would never be another."

I recently
read The Homesman by Glendon
Swarthout. It was written in 1988.I was not familiar

with his works, but he was quite an accomplished author of Western fiction,
with fourteen other books written about the Wild West!The Homesman won two awards in that
category.It has been made into a movie
starring Tommy Lee Jones as the homesman.I am looking forward to seeing it.

The
Homesman takes place in Nebraska in the 1850’s.I found the story very interesting.It is primarily about the women pioneers and how difficult life
was.For many women (and probably men)
the hard life shattered both their mental and physical health.The families were unable to care for the
women, and so a homesman would be found to escort the women back East to their
families there or to institutions where they would be cared for.

In the
book, four of the wives living in the area had gone mad, and something needed
to be done for them.However, none of
the men in the area would step up to take the women back East, so a spinster,
Mary Bee Cuddy, volunteered to take them back to Iowa where there were people
who would then take the women on to their final destination.As Mary Bee was making preparations for the journey
(which would take four or five weeks in a covered wagon), she came upon a man
hanging from a tree, a noose around his neck, still sitting on his horse (the point
being when the horse took off, the man would be killed).It turned out that the man, George Briggs,
had jumped claim to another man’s land while the man was gone, and the
neighbors found him and rather than outright killing him, put him on his horse
with a noose around his neck, thus avoiding killing him themselves. Mary Bee, knowing that she could not handle the
four mad women by herself, agreed to save Mr. Briggs if he would do whatever she
asked.He consented and, in that way,
she got a companion to travel with her.

The journey
was full of hardships, including Indian attacks, and bad weather.And, of course, two very different people traveling
very close together.

I was
surprised by how taken I was with this story.The stories of the four mad women were fascinating.The story ended up much differently than
expected.One of my book groups read
this and the other members did not like the ending.I kind of did like it…it was quite unexpected
and it contrasted strength and resilience.

The very
most interesting part for me was reading the Afterword of the book.The Afterword was written by Glendon
Swarthout’s son and he described how the book was based on research and actual stories
of the pioneer women.Fascinating.